师爷治国 | 华盛顿邮报

Steve Bannon is Trump’s conscience. Yikes.

Donald Trump seems to think he’s still on his reality TV show shouting, “You’re fired!” while President Stephen K. Bannon is busy drafting executive orders with his favorite black crayon.

看样子唐纳德·特朗普以为自己依然在真人秀节目上大吼：“你被解雇了”，而真正的总统史蒂夫·K·班农正忙着用他最喜爱的黑色蜡笔起草行政令。

注释：班农是特朗普的总统首席战略专家。

Such is the surreal universe in which we find ourselves. Those who thought they were electing Trump to the presidency likely have never heard of  — author of the  and later the  “Being There,” in which protagonist Chance the gardener, a simpleton who worked for a wealthy benefactor, is mistaken for an aristocrat named Chauncey Gardiner through a grand misunderstanding born of magical thinking.

我们就处在这样一个超现实主义时空之中。那些以为自己选特朗普当了总统的人可能从没听说过小说《Being There》的作者和同名电影编剧杰西·科辛斯基，作为作品主人公的园丁Chance头脑简单，他一直给有钱的老爷打工，可阴差阳错间，被误以为是名叫Chauncey Gardiner的贵族。

When Gardiner’s employer dies and the gardener is forced to enter the larger world, his body of knowledge consists only of what he has seen on television. 

Gardiner的雇主死后，园丁被迫进入更大的世界，他仅有的知识都是从电视上学到的。

When he speaks about flowers and plants, others interpret his simple words as insightful and profound observations on economics and foreign policy. They hear and see what they need to see and hear. Finally, Chauncey is selected as the perfect next president based solely on people’s utterly incorrect interpretation of him.

他说到花和植物时，别人把简单的话解读为对经济学和外交政策的深邃观察，他们听到和看到地全凭心中臆想。最后，Chauncey被认定堪为最完美的下任总统，完全源于人们对他的错解。

Similarly, candidate Trump shouted nonsense to cheering crowds who decided that he was brilliant and insightful. But it’s Bannon who seems to be pulling the levers — running the show — unelected, inaccessible and unaccountable.

如出一辙，候选人特朗普对欢呼的人群胡喊乱叫，人们却认定他见识不凡。可班农看来才是操控表演的人——未经选举，难以触及，无法解释。

The rumpled former naval officer and filmmaker must be given credit where due. He obviously has a Soviet’s grasp of the power of propaganda, an admitted mission to restore economic nationalism and a high tolerance for the intolerant. His Breitbart news franchise was a welcoming haven for white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

这位一头散发的前海军军官和电影制片人该得到应有的评价。他显然谙熟苏联式的宣传手段，致力于复兴经济民族主义，对孰不可忍之事倒高度宽容。他主办的布莱特哈特新闻是种族至上和新纳粹主义者的天堂。

If Karl Rove was George W. Bush’s brain, Bannon is Trump’s conscience. The noted parallels to Kosinski’s inspired character, meanwhile, are almost too on the nose to merit further comment.

如果说卡尔·罗夫是小布什的大脑，班农是特朗普的良心。将他比作科辛斯基笔下的人物恰如其分，毋庸多做评价。

But even those who noticed the similarities much earlier in this electoral psycho-saga may be forgiven if they’re surprised by the accuracy with which life imitates art.

可即便早就在这轮大选的心理传奇剧中注意到其中相通之处的人，也会因生活与艺术如此雷同而感到吃惊。

With little more than a week in office, President Bannon has been operating at a frantic pace. As Trump sits dutifully at his desk,  and memorandums — banning mostly Muslim travelers and doing away with  — . 

上任不到一周，班农总统行动火速。特朗普尽职地坐在办公桌旁，签署行政令和备忘录，禁止大多数穆斯林旅行者入境，开除了代理司法部长萨利·耶茨；班农则在国家安全委员会谋得一席之位。

Though true that previous administrations have approved visits by political advisers, including David Axelrod during the Obama years, there’s at least one significant difference. 

尽管以往的政府也批准政治顾问参会，其中包括奥巴马时代的戴维·阿克塞尔罗德，至少有一点重要区别。

Within a day of the Friday afternoon blitzkrieg that ultimately deleted Yates, two council members specifically required to advise the president on security matters — the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — were stripped of their regular seats on the NSC’s principals committee. Now why would this be? 

周五下午的闪电战最终踢走了耶茨，就在这一天内，两名按要求该就安全问题向总统建言的委员会成员——国家情报主任和参谋长联席会议主席——被夺去在国家安全委员会的常任坐席。怎么会这样呢？

Perhaps Bannon needed a little more elbow room and fewer ears during discussions about which American citizens should die in the name of national security. Until now, such targets have been limited to al-Qaeda militant , who was born in New Mexico and killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen in 2011. 

可能班农需要一点活动空间，在讨论中，他不想让那么多人听到究竟哪些美国公民应该去死——以国家安全之名。迄今为止，这些目标只限于基地武装分子安瓦尔·奥拉基，他出生于新墨西哥州，2011年在也门被中情局的无人机击毙。

As, too, was his  two weeks later. As, also, reportedly, was  this past Sunday during a raid that also cost the life of a member of .

还有他16岁的儿子，两周后被击毙。据称还有8岁的女儿，这周日在一场袭击中死亡，一名海豹突击队队员在袭击中牺牲。

To what end? Was this yet another of Trump’s measuring schticks? 

这是在干什么？特朗普又一个小噱头吗？

The precedent for killing an American citizen was set by President Barack Obama, to be sure. But who knows where the lines will be drawn now? Every day is a jack-in-the-box — or a dozen — a fresh page from s sketchpad. 

没错，狙杀美国公民的先例是奥巴马开创的，可现在谁知道尺度是什么呢？恶棍是每天一个的玩偶靶子，或是一打，是耶罗尼米斯·博斯画板上的崭新一页。

注：博斯是至的画家，多数画作描绘与人类道德的沉沦。以、甚至是的形象来表现人的邪恶。图画复杂，有高度的原创性、想像力，并大量使用各式的与，其中有些甚至在他的时代中也非常晦涩难解。

Even some of the so-called deplorables are beginning to get twitchy. At first they wrote me to say, “I’m slightly terrified,” and, more recently, “I’m downright scared,” as just one example. 

甚至一些所谓光脚不怕穿鞋的人也开始惴惴不安。首先他们告诉我说：“我有点害怕。”最近有人又说：“我被吓呆了”。

The smart set says, why are you surprised? Trump is doing what he said he would. He’s a different kind of president. Different rules. The media should sit down and . People who don’t like the president’s policies .

用时髦的话说，这有什么值得大惊小怪的？特朗普不过是说到做到。他就是一个与众不同的总统。他推行与众不同的规则。媒体应该坐下来，闭上嘴，不喜欢总统政策的人滚到一边儿凉快去。

Whatever tiny ray of hope people held out in the belief that Trump ultimately would behave rationally — respectful of protocol, with caution and care, without haste and with wisdom — has been extinguished by a strategy of maximum chaos executed by shock and awe. With heads spinning, if they’re not rolling, most won’t know what hit them until it’s too late. It’s called distraction.

不论人们抱有何种微弱的希望，以为特朗普终将按理出牌，尊重惯例，谨小慎微，不疾不徐，多动脑子，那都将被令人瞠目结舌的最大混乱策略碾灭。脑袋就算不能滚，至少还能转，可在你东张西望时，是来不及发现究竟是什么击中了自己的。这被称作分心法。

Just as President Bannon intended.

班农总统正是这么打算的。

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